Supplementation (vegan) cheat-sheet

If you're vegan and don't like to supplement with pills - here is my cheat sheet hope this helps!
Also if you have something to add to this cheat sheet that would be awesome too!

B12 – Fortified foods: Plant milks, breakfast cereals, nutritional yeast. Once cup of organic soy milk has 50% of your vitamin B12 and when paired with a fortified cereal about 150% of your daily vitamin B12 needs are met.

Iron – A lot of plant foods contain Iron but it’s not as easily absorbed as iron from animal products. Plant sources of iron include dried fruit, spirulina, beans, lentils, tofu, cooked leafy greens and fortified cereals. To better absorb Iron pair it with vitamin C rich foods.

Omega-3 Fats – Oils like flaxseed, canola, walnut, wheat germ and soybean – also microalgae, nuts and seeds.

Vitamin D – the sun! 😊 Also fortified plant alternatives like almond milk and orange juice

Calcium – Green vegetables including kale, turnip greens and broccoli. Fortified plant milks, orange juice, tofu and cereals.

Zinc – Can be found in legumes, nuts and whole grains

Protein – A plant based diet can easily meet protein needs! Half a cup of tofu provides 20 grams of protein. Four ounces of seitan is 24 grams and black beans provide more than 15 grams per cup

I don't recommend replacement products but a lot of people like them - there are a lot in the market now that are also fortified with vitamins and protein and other essentials!

a reply to: Skorpiogurl

vitain d = MUSHROOMS .

tasty , nutritious - versatile - eat more shrooms

Garden of life makes a B12 spray and it is methyl b12. It tastes good and is made by yeast so it is vegetarian friendly. I keep a few bottles of that in stock. Methyl B12 is the type some people need take, cyanocobalamin is not really good for everyone.

B12 and choline are the two supplements that vegetarians might need. Betaine requires an enzyme to convert to choline, and choline needs a different enzyme to convert to betaine. I do not make much of either enzyme so I need to eat meat based choline, preferrably egg or liver, and I also have to eat plant based betaine too. Trimethylglycine is betaine.

As for Iron, you can get that from cooking stuff in a cast iron frying pan. Our body knows how to use that. D2 is found in veggies and requires sunlight and the skin to convert it to D3. Potatoes contain Calcitriol which is the active hormone of vitamin D, it does not need the sun, liver, or kidneys to metabolize it and some other root veggies also have the active form Calcitriol. Most nightshades have it in varying amount, they are nightshades and grow at night. Calcitriol not only helps build bones and cartilage, it is also used in the brain and wards off dementia somewhat. If the liver and kidneys are working correctly, you do not need calcitriol, almost everyone has the ability to make it unless we consume foods that block their ability to properly convert it.

Calcium can be blocked from absorbtion in a half dozen ways, even if you have everything working and have D3 in the body. Some oxilates can bind the calcium in the gut and it does not get absorbed. So make sure not to over eat high oxilate foods. No amount of vitamin D will remedy the problem of Calcium being bound in the digestive tracts to other chemistries that make it so it can't be absorbed. Many veggies have the oxilates in them. Phytates is another chemistry that can cause problems like that. Too much meat will also stop calcium from being absorbed, but this is a vegetarian thread so that is not an issue here.

Some foods possess anti-nutrient properties and that includes many veggies, no matter how much vitamins and minerals in them absorption is minimal.

Even a vitamin or mineral pill has little benefit if food chemistry binds the nutrients. Calcium supplements should be taken independent of other mineral supplements, because they lower the acid in the stomach and minerals cannot be converted properly to make them bioavailable. Bread usually has lots of calcium in it, but if it is whole wheat bread, the calcium could be bound. Wheat takes lots of calcium out of the soil, so do certain vegetables, so liming the soil is required to keep it producing. But as with humans, calcium in lime can block the uptake of other minerals, so overliming is no good either.

Vitamin B...Bacon!

a reply to: rickymouse

Interesting.. the oxilate foods are a wierd one. Lots of heaveggies are high in it and i haven't heard of it being a problem for a lot of people..

Maybe it's only an issue for certain people? Unless there was a large study done..

originally posted by: blueman12
a reply to: rickymouse

Interesting.. the oxilate foods are a wierd one. Lots of heaveggies are high in it and i haven't heard of it being a problem for a lot of people..

Maybe it's only an issue for certain people? Unless there was a large study done..

If you are susceptable to kidney stones, one in five people are, oxylates are usually the reason why. Calcium oxylate stones are the ones that are mostly a problem. People make enzymes at different rates, and the enzyme that breaks down oxylates is no different. Some people make very little of this enzyme. Oxylates are necessary in our body but overconsumption can hurt some people, what is normal for one person may cause health problems for another.

The last I examines the kidney stone issue, kidney stone occurrences were up ten fold from twenty years before. The young are eating undercooked veggies these days, oxylates do fall apart if cooked appropriately. Green beans should be boiled to tender, not mildly crunchy. Same with Broccoli and spinach should also be cooked well to prevent oxylates from causing problems. When I was young, we ate spinach often, boiled till mushy and butter and milk added to make creamed spinach. Milk contains calcium, calcium binds to the oxylates and they are not problematic. Now broccoli has more calcium so oxylates causing kidney stones is not a problem, but cruciferous veggies are goitrogens which can cause problems of their own. Just toss a little cheese in that broccoli when you cook it if you want it a little more hard and oxylates will not be a problem.

There are companion foods and recipes that help to stop side effects of veggies and foods. But our society has tossed out what our ancestors knew and passed on to their young. Spinach is not a problem when well cooked, in fact it is good for you. Spinach has an evil side if eaten regularly raw or eaten in higher amounts in a meal for MOST people. Beliefs that it will not bother you will not protect you. Also eating more than a few Green beans raw can cause some major issues, ones a person would not even think came from eating green beans raw the day before. Like a stroke or blood clot. This information on green beans is all over the place, but you need to look for it specifically to find it. Lectins can be a problem. You should not eat the pods of peas either, except the edible pod types, people know that yet are unaware why it happens. Overconsuming edible pod peas will cause the same problem as eating nonedible pods if you consume a lot of them raw.

I could go on and on with explaining things that can be caused by many common foods. Why are chronic diseases on the rise so much these days, why aren't people's immune systems responding properly to cancers and viruses. The simple answer is nobody listened to their parents a few generations ago and instead listened to the sales pitch of people who gain selling them stuff or people who decided that they could create their own recipes based on taste alone and tossed out the concerns of our ancestors on properly preparing foods, the same people who actually learned that preparing foods properly made it so we could eat them. In within a few generations it is impossible to change epigenetic factors without blending of people unless mutations occur. You inherit genes from your parents. It could take up to five to ten generations to be able to metabolize a new food properly without drastic side effects. Some side effects cause mental issues, it is not always physical. All foods, even water and fasting effect how a person perceives things and rationalizes things. All food is psychoactive, our enzymes can be boosted to help detox but then foods can destroy enzymes, proteinases do that and proteinases often are in certain foods that are raw.

I can ramble on and on about multiple ways things can effect you, actually getting specific in how certain veggies can help us or cause problems.